Quentin Tarantino was practically raised in movie theaters. In his book, Cinema Speculation, he describes being a child within the ’60s and ’70s, indulging in movies intended for adults, and never even understanding them. It wasn’t a typical childhood by any means. While most youngsters were busy with cartoons, he watched brutal dramas and strange comedies together with his mom and stepdad.
At age seven, the then-young Pulp Fiction creator sat through a double feature that included a person beating a junkie and his own daughter. He was way too young at the moment, but little did he care. He liked being in on something grown-ups were watching and even laughed at jokes he didn’t get, simply because the group did.
“When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them: no, I went to movies” – Quentin Tarantino #bornonthisday pic.twitter.com/NeYJv8Sxc0
— BFI (@BFI) March 27, 2014
Why Was Quentin Tarantino Allowed To Watch R-Rated Movies As A Kid?
For the legendary director, this early exposure wasn’t random. His mother had a rule that probably derived from George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory. She considered movies to be high-quality, even in the event that they were violent or s*xual ones, however the news was off-limits. In her view, fiction was fiction, but what happened in real life was what a toddler ought to be protected against.
She trusted Quentin Tarantino to inform the difference. That mindset opened a door most youngsters never got near. He began to comprehend his world looked very different from his classmates’, and he saw things most of them never would.
How Childhood Movies Influenced Quentin Tarantino’s Signature Style
Tarantino’s experiences, gathered from watching movies, carved a path that later would define his profession. While you grow up watching intense movies through a toddler’s eyes, it shapes the way you see stories. His own movies would later carry the identical DNA, which were violent and unpredictable, but at all times self-aware. In his movies, characters bleed, but never like in the true world. It’s all heightened, theatrical, and only for the sake of movie violence.
Quentin Tarantino and John Travolta on the set of Pulp Fiction (1994) pic.twitter.com/n2dqJmbXeB
— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) July 10, 2024
The First Movie Scene That Ever Shocked Young Quentin Tarantino
It happened during a movie Tarantino’s mom took him to called Isadora. It wasn’t gory or loud, and it was a few dancer. He found the film dull until the very end. The character, played by Vanessa Redgrave, sits in a automotive with an extended scarf fluttering behind her. Suddenly, the headscarf gets caught within the wheel, and she or he dies. That moment stunned young Tarantino. He hadn’t seen it coming, and it stuck with him. On the ride home, he kept pressing his mom about it.
Based on Far Out Magazine, the Kill Bill director laughed and revealed that his mom simply turned around and said, “Quentin, you’ve got nothing to fret about. I’d never, ever, under any circumstances, allow you to wear an extended, flowing scarf in a convertible roadster.” And that was that. Now, all these years later, a lot about Tarantino’s style starts to make sense whenever you picture that child, wide-eyed in a dark theater, watching things no kid should but one way or the other understanding greater than most.
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